Mobster acquitted in 'Goodfellas' heist gets prison in arson

Vincent Asaro |
Photo: AP

By LARRY NEUMEISTERDecember 28, 2017 04:54 PM

NEW YORK (AP) — A legendary airport robbery recounted in the movie "Goodfellas" came back to haunt an 82-year-old mobster on Thursday, when a judge cited evidence of his role in it while sentencing him to eight years in prison for an unrelated road rage arson.

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Vincent Asaro, balding and bespectacled, reacted to the sentence with disgust.

"I don't care what happens to me at this point," he grumbled.

He looked at U.S. District Judge Allyne R. Ross, saying: "What you sentenced me to is a death sentence anyway."

The sentence was more than double what federal guidelines set out as punishment for the 2012 car torching, which prosecutors said resulted when Asaro directed Bonanno crime family associates to track down and set afire the car of a motorist he believed had cut him off.

Asaro, speaking before the announcement of the sentence, said he was "terribly sorry."

"I was on my way home," he said. "It happened. It just got out of hand."

The judge said she had "no illusion" that prison will result in Asaro's rehabilitation or bring an end to his "lifelong career as a member of the Mafia." She said she was mindful of Asaro's 2015 acquittal in the infamous 1978 heist at the Lufthansa cargo terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport, a robbery retold in the 1990 hit film "Goodfellas," starring Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta and Joe Pesci.

The judge said she reviewed evidence from the trial she had presided over and cited proof Asaro had participated in a 1969 murder and had admitted his role and obtained jewelry from the armed robbery of more than $6 million in cash and jewelry from the Lufthansa terminal.

"He remains dangerous to the public," she said.

The prison term resulted from a road rage encounter between Asaro and a motorist who became "embroiled in a high-speed chase at the hands of an enraged Asaro," the FBI said.

Asaro contacted an associate with access to a local law enforcement database, identified the license plate information of the car and triggered a plan to burn the car in front of the motorist's home, said the head of New York's FBI office, William F. Sweeney Jr.

"The anger that propelled Asaro to action is reminiscent of so many scripted Hollywood dramas, but unlike the fame and fortune of the big screen, Asaro's story ends on a different note," Sweeney said in a release. "Today's sentence proves that living life in the fast lane is sure to be short lived."

Before the announcement of the sentence, defense attorney Elizabeth Macedonio blamed the government for the long prison term, saying prosecutors were "asking you to sentence him for crimes he was acquitted of that occurred 50 or 60 years ago."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicole Argentieri called Asaro a "one-man crime wave" and said he was a hero in his Queens neighborhood after he was acquitted at trial.